An increasing number of women delay pregnancy in favor of careers. Currently, twenty percent (20%) of all live births in the United States are to women over 30 years of age. The risk of an abnormal child due to chromosomal defects increases nonlinearly with age, 1/385 for women age 30 and 1/81 births at age 39. Thus, it is understandable why women of advancing child bearing age are so interested in fetal chromosomal analysis. Currently this analysis, karyotyping, is done on tissue or cells obtained by chorionic villus sampling at 10 weeks or amniocentesis at 16-18 weeks gestation. Both procedures are surgically invasive and thus pose some risk to the fetus. We propose that fetal cells present in maternal circulating bloods early in pregnancy be utilized for karyotyping. To avoid any danger to the fetus, a small blood sample would be taken from a vein in the pregnant woman's arm at 8-12 weeks of pregnancy during the prospective mother's first visit to her obstetrician. Processing would remove red and white blood cells and the fetal cells would then be isolated using appropriate immunological procedures. Human fetal cells can be readily cultured and karyotyping is a well established procedure.